BendigoWritersFestival 2018

August 11-13, 2017

Speakers

Tony Walker

Tony Walker continues to be a working journalist having begun his career as an ABC Specialist Trainee in 1971 after graduating BA in 1968 in politics and international relations from the Australian National University.

In his early career at the ABC he worked for the overseas broadcaster, Radio Australia, before re-locating to Canberra where he served as Radio Australia’s first Canberra correspondent and diplomatic correspondent for the ABC.

He transferred to The Age in 1976 and served in various posts, including defence and foreign affairs correspondent and chief of staff before being posted to China in 1979 for Fairfax newspapers. There began a long career as a foreign correspondent for both Fairfax and The Financial Times of London.

He returned to Australia in 2010 as The Australian Financial Review’s international editor.

He now writes fortnightly column for The Age and Sydney Morning Herald, along with columns for The Conversation, among other writing assignments.

He has won a number of journalism awards, including two Walkleys for commentary and the Paul Lyneham award for excellence in press gallery journalism.

Tony is a published author of a biography of the Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat (Arafat: The Biography), and most recently a tribute to the golfer, Peter Thomson (The Peter Thomson Five).

He is currently working on a road trip book about the rise of populism in Australia, or a more basic question: what ails the country?